Black box of EgyptAir plane found; recorder damaged

Cairo: The black box of the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month killing all 66 on board, was recovered yesterday from the Mediterranean, a breakthrough towards finding the cause of the tragedy.

The vessel ‘John Lethbridge’ that is affiliated to the company Deep Ocean Search (DOS) found the damaged cockpit voice recorder of the Airbus A320.

The vessel, which joined the search team last week, succeeded in pulling out the memory unit from the Mediterranean Sea. This unit is the most important part in the recorder. The vessel has found and obtained images from the wreckage of the EgyptAir plane.

While the wreckage discovered could offer clues as to why the plane went down, Airbus said the flight recorders held the key to the mystery. Some wreckage had been pulled out of the sea by search teams last month, along with belongings of passengers.

EgyptAir flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people, including crew, crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19 with 56 passengers and 10 cabin crew on board.

A deep-sea robot has also located pieces of the missing plane at the bottom of the Mediterranean.